> A school to provide the $50,000 launch.....
> Anything from keeping 50 hams from donating
> $1000 a piece and just buying a launch
> - no school involved?
Sure, anyone. I havent priced the latest launch integratiojn
costs from the Cubesat Program recently, but the $50k was their
original plan...
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Robert Bruninga
> <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
>>> > A last comment, a LEO would be virtually worthless
> > for Emergency NET communications and HF is still
> > a viable and reliable means of communications...
>>> Well, I still think a bunch of 145.825 APRS digipeating
> satellites in LEO that would allow text-messaging from
anywhere
> in the world at any time, downlinked into the
APRS-Internet
> system and hence global internet connectivity is still a
great
> way to go for basic messaging for emergency response.
With just
> 6 such tiny 4" cubesats, you could get a message
in-or-out with
> no more than a half hour wait from the front panel of
your APRS
> mobile radio. With a dozen of these, you could have
global
> communications anywhere instantly or with no more than a
5
> minute wait.
>> Our goal is to get more of these up there to join the
ISS
> digipeater, but of the 4 we have lanuched so far, all
were
> short-term orbits and so the most we have ever had
operational
> at one time was 3 (PCSAT-1, ANDE and RAFT). That is one
of the
> main reasons we wanted to see ISS on 145.825 to join the
> constellation. ISS was still on 145.800 during most of
the life
> of those three birds (which were all on 145.825)
>> Today, with 6 AA NiCd's, a 19" whip antennna, and a 3.4"
square
> APRS Microtacker TNC/Radio you can throw together an
APRS
> satellite for under $400. Add cheap solar panels, a lot
of
> sweat equity and then find a school to provide the
$50,000
> launch, and bingo, A LEO satellite with great utility
that
> anyone can use while mobile for text messsaging and
email from
> the front panel of their APRS radio.
>> Please see the Microtrack TNC/Radio which can serve as
the
> entire Comms, Command, Control and Telemetry module:
>>http://www.byonics.com/microtrak/mt-tt4.php>> And see our cubesat project:
http://www.aprs.org/psat.html
> though this web page needs to be significanly updated..
>> Bob, WB4APR
>>>> _______________________________________________
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